Various industrial operations have required convenient sources of relatively high torque, low-speed power such as mining operations or other engineering projects. One of the requirements of devices for supplying such power is that they be sufficiently compact and small of size that they can fit in the often cramped space which the operation provides. Further, it is desirable that such devices have the size and geometry necessary so that a plurality of them can be employed together so as to multiply the amount of power available. Unfortunately, reduction devices heretofore employed have been relatively large and bulky due to the various gear arrangements necessary to translate high speed, low torque forces into slower speed, high torque rotation. Accordingly, such prior devices have not been readily adaptable to many uses, including incorporating them in combination as, for example, to drive the drum of a winch used to left heavy objects.
Accordingly, a main feature of the present invention, is to provide a compact device which comprises a geared engine comprising a drive rotor meshing with a recoil rotor rotating loosely on the shaft of a first step-down gearwheel controlled by a pinion mounted on the drive rotor. A second step-down train comprising a pinion is mounted on the shaft on the opposite side from that of the aforementioned gearwheel and has a gearwheel disposed on a second shaft which is an extension of the drive rotor shaft and has an output pinion by means of which the power supplied by the step-down unit thus described can be used for any apparatus requiring a step-down source of rotational power.
Apart from this main arrangement, the invention also comprises a special arrangement of the engine unit and its reversible distributor.
The invention also resides in a special arrangement of the bearing-supporting flanges enclosing the engine unit, the engine unit itself, and first and second step-down casings, the assembly being "stacked" using screws disposed parallel with the shafts of the rotors.
Lastly, the invention relates more particularly to a specific method of application to mining and civil engineering machinery, and also to certain embodiments of the aforementioned arrangements, the invention relating more particularly still, by way of novel industrial products, to machines of the kind specified comprising the application of a plurality of these devices in combination, the special elements required for their embodiment and assemblies or installations having machines of the kind specified.